Chinese border: Ulaanbaatar -> Beijing

If we were travelling in a different geopolitical climate, we would have taken the Trans Siberian railway. We can't cross the border to Russia, but we can still do the Trans Mongolian through part of it - and our aim is to do as much overland as we feasibly can.

If we'd known how difficult this journey would be we might have done something different, but hindsight is a wonderful thing!

We left Ulaanbaatar on Thursday afternoon on the train to Zamiin-Uud on the border. It was a beautiful thing - like a Soviet-style tanker and probably about half a kilometre long. There weren't many soft sleeper choices left so we went first class, and had our own compartment with sheets and towels, and at either end of the carriage, a huge wood burner for heating (unnecessary in July) and a little water heater fuelled by a tiny wood burner. We watched more of the steppe go by, and Elli continued the misfortune of the stomach bug that simply will not go away, and which is especially unwelcome on a train.

Got to Zamiin-Uud at 7.30 and we really hadn't known what to expect at the other end: there are some bits of travel you just can't research, there's very scant information! We managed to get a bus to take us over the border, which involved driving through several areas of no man's land and getting out to firstly cross the Mongolian border and then the Chinese. We had our first experience of Chinese queuing, i.e. they don't, pushing each other out of the way. The Chinese border gave us some clues of what was to come: a modern, clean and efficient building and service, with more security cameras than I have ever seen.

They spent some time reviewing our visas (everyone else there was Mongolian or Chinese so we got a lot of stares) but waved us through into the town of Erlian, after some confusion

We had our most race-across-the-world experience yet, when we got off the bus in the wrong part of town and had to march back to the bus station, only to find that the buses we'd hoped to catch were full. We had to wait 3 hours, so we twiddled our thumbs and eventually went out to get some food. A good shout, as we went into the first restaurant we saw and ate more vegetables than we have seen in WEEKS - neither Japan nor Mongolia really does vegetables and we are very glad to be in China.

More surprise, though, at the huge differences between Inner and Outer Mongolia - they have the same climate, landscape and way of life, at least for a lot of people outside the towns - but the quality of life and infrastructure is worlds apart. We are very clearly in China even right on the edge of Inner Mongolia.

Took the bus and it didn't get to Hohhot (the provincial capital of Inner Mongolia) until 7pm so rather than try to get to Beijing that night, we prolonged our pain a bit further and stayed in a hotel in Hohhot. Had our first experiences of "how on earth does anything work in China" in failing to find any food for two people who couldn't move (in the end the friendly but confused receptionist made a takeaway order for us on her phone via Google translate) and slept.

The next day we managed to buy train tickets on a third party ticket website, which is at least easy even if more expensive, but all the trains were full until 3pm. Elli was still slightly ill and dazed and Chris had a very confusing time trying to work out how to redeem a ticket (it turns out that you just scan your passport - this, or Chinese ID, is the key to absolutely everything in China). Eventually the high speed train proved as efficient and delightful as Japanese trains, albeit busier and noisier, and we made it to Beijing by 8pm - 55 hours after leaving Ulaanbaatar. 😴Les mer